Battle Royale

Hi everybody!

I don't know if it is the same everywhere, but in my town, people are totally excited about "Hunger Games", currently in our cinemas. So excited that I needed to know more, curious as I am. This is what I read: in this dystopia which takes place in an destroyed America, the Capitol, an inquisitorial government, organizes every year a game, "Hunger Games", where teenagers between 12 and 18 years old are in confrontation until only one of them is left.

I won't go further: it doesn't interest me, and the reason is simple. If I pronounce the name "Battle Royale", does it evoke something?

Battle Royale is a 2000 Japanese action-drama-thriller film based on the 1999 novel of the same name by Koushun Takami. [...] The film tells the story of Shuya Nanahara, a high-school student struggling with the death of his father who is forced by the government to compete in a deadly game, where the students must kill each other in order to win. The film aroused both domestic and international controversy, and was either banned or excluded from distribution in several countries. *

I won't lie to you: you are talking to a huge fan of both the book and the movie.

I discovered this movie when I was 14, and I was immediatly amazed by the foolishness of this "game", organized by a government which fears its teens. How could you imagine your friends and acquaintances fighting to death during three days?

Every student receives a bag with some food and water plus a weapon (from the knife to the submachine gun). And then begins the violence: cruelty, trick, fear, suicides, but also kindness, friendship, love and some kind of innocence, because of the few people who hope to God to find a better solution, for better or for worse. This movie could actually be worth watching only for the fantastic performance of Takeshi Kitano as the cynical and desperate teacher. But there is more to discover beside him, so do not hesitate if you do not know it yet!
Oh, I just want to add something, ladies and gentlemen: as a French-speaking person, I beg my French-speaking readers to watch the movie in Japanese with the French (or whatever) subtitles. Trust me, the French dubbing is a pain in the neck, too far -even sometimes opposite to- the original dialogs.

Souma Mitsuko, interpreted by Shibasaki Kou

And if I already loved the movie, what could I say about the book? A pleasure! We sink into the darkness of the game itself, with the inhuman bets of its investigators about the potential winner, the circumstances which motivated them to set up the "battle royale", the image of a devastated country, and a criticism about the way of thinking: "every man for himself". We also discover deeper characters (in
the movie, I regretted that the main character was seen as a "saint" while almost all the others were becoming madder and madder) -even if they still are big clichés, as Kiriyama Kasuo, the brilliant young man but whose indifference makes him particularly cruel and awfully dangerous-, their thoughts and reactions which are suddenly easier to understand, but nevertheless disconcerting. And of course, if the violence of the images were already alarming, there is nothing compared to the violence of the words!

Masanobu Ando as Kiriyama Kasuo

But what I loved the most in the book was the black humour. Even in the worst situation, when for instance a student is in danger of death, Koushun Takami uses the right words, the special phrases which makes you bursting out laughing at the moment you didn't expected at all!

Let me remind you once again that "Battle Royale", the book, was released in 1999, the movie in 2000, and both of them had an international success, a decade before "Hunger Games".

By the way if you want a detailed advice about the differences between "Battle Royale" and "Hunger Games", please follow this link: http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/165895-the-hunger-games-vs-battle-royale-similarities-and-differences As I told you, I didn't see the movie, and I don't know the books, so I wouldn't be able to give my opinion.

Have a nice Sunday!